Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with one or more exemplary embodiments relate to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method thereof, and more particularly, to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method thereof for processing an image by using metadata included in image content.
Description of the Related Art
Various image processing methods for improving a quality of image content have been provided. For example, an image processing method for improving various image quality elements such as sharpness, brightness of image content, and color has been provided.
High-definition image content have also been provided recently. To perform image processing on high-definition image content, image processing information is required. However, metadata in the related art includes only information on a resolution and a size of the existing image content, but does not include information for image processing.
In particular, blur, noise, and the like may cause degradation of the quality of the high-definition image content (for example, 4K image content). Of blur which appears in movie content, there is a blur due to camera motion and a blur due to film scanner jitter. Blur due to the camera motion may be an intended effect of a director, and an image processing apparatus may have difficulty automatically determining and processing the content according to the director's intention. As to blur due to the film scanner jitter, the image processing apparatus needs to perform image processing to remove the blur due to a problem of a scanner. That is, it may be desirable to remove the blur depending on a producer's intention even in the same image.
Further, noise may include film grain noise, Gaussian noise, breathing noise in which noise among I/B/P frames excessively occurs, etc. Film grain noise may be inserted according to a producer's intention, and it may be desirable that the image processing apparatus not unconditionally remove the film grain noise. On the other hand, the Gaussian noise may not be intentional, but appears during a producing process, and should be removed by the image processing apparatus. The breathing noise occurs in a flicker form by a periodic repetition of gradually blurring noise, which stands out in the I frame, in the B/P frames, and blurring the noise which again stands out in the I Frame, and typically occurs in an image which is excessively compressed. The breathing noise needs to be removed to provide a clear screen, but it is difficult to determine whether there is noise and to know I/B/P frame information in an image quality enhancement algorithm, and as a result, it is difficult to process the breathing noise.
That is, as described above, the existing system of using metadata in which information associated with the image processing is not included may not perform the optimum image quality processing to fit a producer's intention.